Practical theurgical advice

Most of the writings of the Theurgists were destroyed by Christian book burnings and official edicts against pagan writings, especially philosophical and “magical” writings like those of the theurgists. No doubt, many of the ethical writings went up in flames like the spiritual and philosophical texts.

However, we do know that the theurgists praised the civic and philosophical virtues. The Emperor Julian - avowed theurgist - can be seen as a prime example of the theurgic ethical program in action. He instituted numerous laws based on theurgic teachings while attempting to rebuild the legal and civic structure of paganism that Christians had destroyed.

Basing his reforms on pagan and even Christian teachings, his political and legal reforms operationalized the core theurgic virtues of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice, as taught by Iamblichus, Proclus, and Porphyry. Key elements of his reforms included the following:

• Reverence for the divine—A fundamental assumption was a deep piety and worship, treating the divine as realities encountered in mundane life, such as we find in modern Hasidic teachings or Zen Buddhism. For Julian, spirituality is not simply abstract ratiocination and mental masturbation.

• Benevolence and charity—Taking a page from the teachings of Christianity, he organized a pagan charity system. He encouraged charitable giving. These organizations shared food and clothes and cared for prisoners. He believed such actions were an imitation of the love that flowed down from the eternal and transcendent Good, taught by Plato in Republic.

• Moral virtue and purity—His laws promoted personal virtue and temperance in sexuality. They preached a simple life-style eschewing the kind of extravagant and ostentatious life-style of many of the Christians of his day. Virtuous actions are essential for a pious life, contrasting with perceived Christian moral laxity, and otherworldly focus.

• Wisdom and knowledge—He set up schools to encourage the study of Plato, Aristotle, and he Stoics. For he believed that good actions follow good thought and critical thinking skills. He barred Christians from teaching classics unless they respected the pagan context of their own teachings, such as Porphyry and Plotinus’s contribution to the formulation of the Christian dogma of the Trinity.

Even though we do not have the ethical writings of the theurgists, we can see from Julian’s reforms, in terms of daily everyday practical life, their teachings echoed the classical virtues as taught by the great philosophers.

This is important to realize as the impression one might receive from the writings that we do have that they were purely concerned with leaving this world behind and a life of ascetic purification and self-denial. Unlike the monastic movement set motion by Augustine and the desert monks, Theurgy was world-affirming as well as an attempt to ascend to the transcendent realm to become like the gods.